Merced County Health Status Essay Example for Free

Merced County Health Status Essay A community’s health can be established through a myriad of differing factors. Three specific factors that will help to determine the health of the county in which I live are community safety, disaster preparedness, as well as an analysis of the population. The community under review, Merced, is located in central California and made up of seventeen cities and communities whose individual populations do not exceed more than 75,000 and covers an area of approximately 1,972 square miles (United States Census Bureau, 2010) with a total population of approximately 255,793 people in 2010 (Merced County California, 2012). The first area of importance is community safety. It is important to beginning discussion with the one of the most basic of health indicators; the air we breathe. The air quality index in Merced County is 48, a median value that takes into account only the most hazardous air pollutants (Air Now, 2012). This value is only slightly lower than the air quality index of California, but is approximatly 30% higher than the national average (Air Now, 2012). Another important area that must be addressed is the water we drink. In Merced County most of our drinking water comes from groundwater sources which are collected by two public water systems. Most all areas in Merced County are affected by three different pollutants: Nitrates, Ethylene Dibromide (EDB), and Dibromochloropropane (DBCP) (Air Now, 2012). Although all three of the pollutants fall below the water standard or eliminated through the public water systems, these pollutants will continue to be an issue because EDB and DBCP were used by farmers for many years to fumigate crops. Another area of concern in community safety is the safety hazards within the sociocultural environment. The ability to work, shop, or simply ride your bike and feel protected within the area in which you live are important features in determining the health of a community. With 1. 2 police officers and 4. 4 sheriff officers per 100,000 people and an average response time of 3 minutes (Merced County Office of Economic Development, 2012); most people can be fairly confident that they and their property are protected. However, crime rates have risen in the past few years. In 2009, Merced County experienced 1,658 violent crimes; the majority of which involved aggrivated assult but also included 26 murders, 78 forcible rapes, and 276 robberies (United States Department of Justice, 2012). There were also 4,390 property crimes and 90 cases of arson (United States Department of Justice, 2012). Rate of offenses per 100,000 are as follows: violent 568. 3, property 567. 3, drug 512. 9, sex 37. 9, other 489. 1, and totaling 2,175. 5 per 100,000 (United States Department of Justice, 2012). Considering there are only 5. law enforcement officers per 100,000 people, it would appear as though crime will continue to rise for the foreseeable future. These numbers are especially troublesome considering budget cuts that will surely affect all public safety departments (Layoff Watch, 2011). There are a couple of ethnic groups within Merced County that feel especially vulnerable, the Hispanic community and the Asian community. The Hispanic community nearly makes-up 50 percent of the population and is congrigated in the poorest of neighborhoods. Yet another concern involving public safety is the ability to obtain medical services. Within Merced County there are only two hospitals that offer emergency medical service, Memorial hospital of Los Banos and Dignity Health of Merced. Memorial hospital of Los Banos is a relatively small hospital with the ability to admit a total of 46 patients (Memorial Hospital Los Banos, 2008). The emergency room has the ability to care for a total of 6 patient’s requiring immediate emergency care, but has the capability to fly patients out to other facilities if required. Dignity Health of Merced is the larger of the two facilities and cares for the majority of the population of Merced County. Dignity Health has a total of 194 beds available. Dignity Health has approximately 10,900 admissions per year and total emergency room visits equaling around 66,000 per year. On a typical weekend the emergency room will see about 250 patients between the hours of 7 a. m. and7 p. m. (M. Parker RN, personal communication, June 8, 2012). Also serving the community are 8 primary clinics. The majority of these clinics are located within the city limits of Merced and Los Banos. Those located outside of these locations will have to drive upto 30 minutes to obtain medical services. Merced County also has five psychiatric facilities, only 2 of which are capable of admitting patients. Country Villa Merced Behavioral Health Center has 96 beds available for the community and has the ability to care for long-term patients between the ages of 18 to 65 years of age (Country Villa Merced Behavioral Health Center, 2012). Marie Green Psychiatric Center is a smaller facility that has the ability to admit upto 20 patients between the ages of 18 to 65 years of age, but this is a short term facility that can only care for patients for up to 90 days. Currently, in the Merced County area there are no psychiatric facilities that have the capability to care for psychiatric patients under the age of 18 or over the age of 65. Emergency preparedness within Merced County is primarily controlled by the Department of Public Health. Merced County’s emergency preparedness was last updated in 2003 and in general addresses â€Å"preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation activities† (City of Merced California, 2012). In the preparedness phase, activities are concentrated in advance of a disaster. Actions are focused on â€Å"implementing hazard mitigation projects, developing hazard analyses, developing and maintaining emergency plans and procedures, conducting general and specialized training, conducting exercises, developing mutual aid agreements, and improving emergency public education and warning systems† (Merced County California, 2003). In the response phase an emergency situation is imminent or likely to occur. During this stage the county initiates actions to increase its readiness. In the recovery phase the focus is to return public services to Merced county residents and return any area affected by the emergency to its previous condition. The mitigation phase occurs before and after emergencies. After a disaster or emergency, mitigation or alleviation, includes â€Å"reducing the impact of hazards that exist within Merced County† (Merced County California, 2003). Although Merced County Public Health Department concerns itself with the county as a whole, it must also make provisions for areas more susceptable to emergencies or areas where there is an increased difficulty to disseminate information. Within these areas there are disproportionate ethnic minorities. The two primary ethnic groups, hispanic and asian americans, are particularily at risk because of transportational and housing issues as well as dysfunctional attitudes toward disaster planning or preparedness. Within Merced County the Hispanic community makes up nearly 50% of the population and constitutes the majority of those living below poverty level. This translates into the majority of the population within the economically depressed areas having inadequate housing or malfunctioning transportation. When a disaster does occur, this group will be the hardest hit as they will not have the financial means to recover what they have lost. This group also has the highest potential for harm due to the inability to relocate to an area that is safe due to transportational issue. What places this group at highest risk are their attitudes toward disaster planning or preparedness. After speaking with six different families from a depressed area, all but one family put any thought into a potential emergency, and none of these families had money set aside for such a disaster (personal communication, June 1, 2012).

Censorship Essay - Dont Censor Child Pornography -- Argumentative Per

Don't Censor Child Pornography      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In November of 1997 a Williamson County, Tenn. grand jury indicted Barnes & Noble booksellers for violating state obscenity laws prohibiting the display of "material harmful to minors". The materials in question were two books that featured photographs of nude children: Jock Sturges' Radiant Identities and David Hamilton's The Age of Innocence. Since then, Radical Right activist Randall Terry has launched a crusade aimed at forcing bookstores to remove the "criminal garbage" of Sturges, Hamilton and (recently added to his list of demons) Sally Mann from their bookshelves (bookweb). To implement his program Terry issued a call to Right sympathizers, urging them to march into bookstores and tear offensive pages from the targeted books. Several bookstores around the country fell prey to Terry's vandals. In response to these incidents and the threat of future public vandalism, Barnes & Noble recently issued a memo to each of its 1000+ stores directing them to place t he contested materials under lock and key, and to allow customers to view them only in the presence of a store manager (apocalypse 9709).    This response is upsetting. It is upsetting because it means that, in several significant ways, Terry has won. True, no one (as of yet) has put Sturges or the others in jail (as Terry has called for), but the public's right to view the supposed "pornographic" content of their work has been significantly diminished by Barnes & Noble's action. By acknowledging the threat of Terry and his small group of supporters, B&N has reified their claim that the work of the named photographers needs to be segregated from the "decent" public's reach. It installs a technology of surveillance that in... ...ms to me that it would be rather unlikely for a young child to stumble onto the work of a contemporary professional photographer. S/he would have to know something about that photographer, know what his or her work is about, and know how to get to it. This means that, in the case of these photographers, the child would have to know something about nudity, art and photography to want to seek them out. If s/he already knows something about these subjects, then what harm is viewing nude bodies going to have?      Works Cited:    Foucault, Michel, History of Sexuality, Vol I: An Introduction, New York: Pantheon, 1978.      www.bookweb.org/news/btw/905.html    http://apocalypse.berkshire.net/~ifas/fw/9709/terry.html    http://apocalypse.berkshire.net/~ifas/fw/9509/terry.html    www.villagevoice.com/pride/10goldstein.shtml   

Can Virtual Communication Substitute Human Relations?

According to UN’s telecommunications agency one of the three people is involved in the internet. Cyberspace has created a means for people to come closer together. Rather than spending money on phone services, people in different cities or even different countries can use messenger services, social networking or email to communicate. The Internet allows people to find old friends, classmates, and family members, or meet new people. Many people treat Internet as an enjoyable way of spending their free time.The most significant feature of internet is the possibility of global communication which gives a lot of opportunities to find a related soul or even a true love; however it does have certain drawbacks that people tend to forget about. In other words, despite the fact that internet is convenient tool of communication; people should not forget about big value and advantages of real conventional relations. One of the benefit from building relationship, people are able to talk w ith thousands of people all over the world.In real life it would not be possible, even if they would spend all their life traveling and having new relationships. While using the computer a person can have a friend in Russia or talk with tango dancers from Argentina. What is more online friends do not judge weight, skin color or clothes. Despite the pluses which were mentioned above, one of the major disadvantages of virtual communication, especially at the beginning of new acquaintance is that anyone can enhance the truth as much as he wants.Not all sites require a photo, and even those that do cannot guarantee that the photo is a real one. Clear signs that the photo may be a fake are strange backgrounds that might indicate a stock image, photos that appear professionally taken and photos that seem old rather than current. Unfortunately some people are not able to identify counterfeit images therefore the internet makes it easy to lie, thus in some cases almost impossible to discern whether the ad is honest or the truth is being embellished.Furthermore, relations through the internet reduce or eliminate face-to-face socialization. Due to the autonomy afforded by the virtual world, individuals are free to create a fantasy persona and can pretend to be someone else. Besides that it is hard to say no, be rude, or ignore someone when you are looking them in the eye. Also, it's incredibly easy and quick to unfriend or unfollow someone or simply block their efforts to make a connection. In other words, just one click of the mouse and your problems would be finished.Unfortunately, this feature of online socialization cheats people of the opportunity to learn how to resolve conflicts in the world outside the Internet and it could retard or cripple one's social skills developments. A report from the National School Boards Association shows that 41 percent of teenagers spend their time posting messages instead of face-to-face interactions with their peers. In conclusion , although the extension of virtual influence is increasing day by day, the real human interactions will not be replaced among society.

The Power of Forgiveness - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 558 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2019/06/26 Category Society Essay Level High school Tags: Forgiveness Essay Did you like this example? The Power of Forgiveness is a movie that goes in depth into horrific acts of terror, violence, and war. Throughout the movie you hear from survivors and victims of such acts. I can appreciate the magnitude of this film, after traveling to Belfast and seeing first-hand the clash of the two religious parties. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Power of Forgiveness" essay for you Create order The anger and contempt between the Catholics and Protestants are still there, still on two sides of a wall dividing a city. A religious conflict created by government. It is often said that the people of Belfast are the nicest to travelers but the meanest to their fellow neighbor. In my many visits to various Amish communities, in both Pennsylvania and Ohio, I can tell what kind of forgiving people the Amish are. Whenever you interact with the Amish in their stores, you can see the kindness in their eyes. It is unfortunate what happened to the Amish in the school shooting, in their loss of family, friends, and neighbors. Filmmaker Martin Doblmeier says, The word forgiveness may be the most provocative word in our culture today. There is an underlying anger in our country that we see regularly in our movies, in the news, even on our highways.† Culture is to blame for all the hate and anger in the world. The human person considers many acts throughout their day to be an attack. An attack on the world, on their country, on themselves, and on their friendships, just to name a few. In the movie, it talks about the infamous terrorist attack on our country, The terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001. Surprisingly it was not all about the hate towards the terrorists but the hate toward New York City. Three relatives of victims of the attack spoke about their hate of the efforts to bury the remains of all the deceased. The City of New York, after 9/11, took the remains mixed with other debris from the scene and moved it to a local landfill. During War, it is often said that what is necessary must be done for victory. During the Vietnam War, Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hanh was a developer of the under privileged. He built villages and within them were schools and medical clinics. The government of North Vietnam discovered Thich Nhat Hanh’s humanitarian work and quickly killed as many villagers as possible. Killing Innocent school children and Buddhist Nuns. Thick Nhat Hanh quickly moved to France to moderate the peace talks, and he developed a portion of France as his center. Every year hundreds of people go for a retreat to Thick Nhat Hanh’s center to learn his teachings of peace, kindness, and forgiveness. Today there are many services for people to cope with anger or hate. In the last scene of the movie, we learn of Azim Khamisa and Ples Felix. Azim deals with the murder of his son Tarik who was murdered by Ples’s grandson Tony. Azim has learned to take his anger and turn it into forgiveness. Azim honors Tarik with a foundation that promotes forgiveness. Azim and Ples are both ambassadors for the foundation and ambassadors for forgiveness. The extreme proof of Azim’s forgiving power is represented in his forgiveness of Tony in his asking for reduced jail time. When Tony is out of jail, Azim has a job waiting for him.